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Orientalism In M. Butterfly

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Discourse does not have a general definition , but Foucault ( as cited by Mills, 2004) have stated that the most effective ways of think of discourse is" practices that systematically creates the object which they speak" (p. 61). In other words, what we say and think are two different things. Discourse is also an idea that language is planned according to different areas of social life, and a way of talking about and understanding the world (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). Discourses are made up of practices, forms and objects (Mill, 2004). It depends on the understanding that there are much more meanings when people communicate than simply just transferring information (University H., 2008). Like Foucault said , " what i said is not what …show more content…

Orientalism is one of the discourses in the film which would be analysed under the category of gender. Orientalism is one of the main themes that is analysed which is a discursive practice in M.Butterfly. Orientalism has three aspects , one of them is history , which is the changing of cultural and historical relationship between Europe and Asia that has a 4000 year old history , secondly , academic discipline ,which is how the West studies various of things about Oriental cultures and traditions ; and thirdly , ideological suppositions , which are how people have fantasies and images about how the Orients are (Said, 1985). Orientalism is something that the West stereotypes and assumes by making statements of things and this is an example why it is a part of discourse because , Foucault (as cited by Mill, 2004) stated that what you say or do is not literally the meaning of it . The image of the East is clearly stereotyped by the West and it is a dream and fantasy of the Occident, which was an image that is also constructed by the West of the East's reality. There are a few ideas of gender through the discourse of Orientalism. One of them is by Gallimard. This is because, after watching Song perform Puccini's Madame Butterfly, he told Song after that, it is a beautiful story because the image in his head of an oriental woman is fulfilled. On the other hand, in the theatre script , Gallimard saw Song Living as a perfect human while acting as Cio Cio San and then he acts as if he is Pinkerton and stated that ‘ i once loved , and was loved by , the perfect woman ‘ (Hwang, 1988, Act One , Scene 11) in the play and also described Oriental woman having " the grace and delicacy‘ (Hwang, 1988, Act One , Scene Six). All these Orientalism stereotypes makes assumptions about gender and feminine because Gallimard has a fantasy of

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In James Paul Gee’s essay “What Is Literacy?’ , he uses the key term ‘discourses’. Gee explains discourses as a placement in society or the belonging to a group in society. Gee states that it come from an individual’s saying, doings, or just their identity. As Gee elaborates on discourses he breaks them down into different areas in which relate to one another.

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To begin with, a discourse community is a group people having the same issues and needs address with. Author John Swales also have idea. He says. “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals. These public goals may be formally inscribed in documents (as is often the case with associations and clubs), or they may be more tacit.”

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From accounts and observations, Songs understanding of Western men allow him to deceive Gallimard. Shockingly, Song is able to convince Gallimard for over 20 years that he is a woman while they have sexual relations. This is Possible because Song takes full advantage of Gallimard’s stereotype that Oriental women are submissive, docile, and shy, particularly when compared to Western women. For example, in act 1 scene 5 Gallimard says “in real life, women who put their total worth at less than sixty-six cents are

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It can be difficult to understand what it means to be a discourse or what communities fall under that category, and that is why I feel like John Swales’ definition of a discourse community is the the one that makes the most sense and the one that almost anybody can apply to communities they are part of and determine if they are discourses or not. Even though Gee and Porter had good points regarding discourses and good arguments, one almost had to be a linguist to fully understand what they were saying. They did help Swales get his point across more clearly in some instances though. Thanks to Swales I now know for a fact that my English 1113 class is a discourse community and I achieved that by following the six rules Swales presented as necessary to be a discourse community. Gee, James P. “Literary, Discourse, and Linguistics.”

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The “pure sacrifice” Butterfly does for an “unworthy” American man is utterly intriguing to Gallimard (Hwang 17). In Gallimard mind, he believes in that Butterfly’s sacrifice is due to love. With Madama Butterfly, it forms Gallimard’s vision of the Oriental woman: Here . . . was a Butterfly with little or no voice—but she had the grace, the delicacy . . . I believed this girl.

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Based on Stuart Hall’s (2006) discussion of Foucault’s theory of discourse, a discourse is generally consisting of a group of statements that together offer a way of talking about a par-ticular knowledge on a certain topic. Many individuals can produce it together, in different institutional settings. The discourse thereby enables the construction of a topic in a specific way which at the same time limits other constructions of the same topic. A discourse is made up not only from one but a multiplicity of statements that all share the same style to talk about the same topic. However, it is not a closed off system, it draws statements from and into other discourses.

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